


The One Where Hunk Punches Haggar

by Chloe_Hallow_Eve



Series: Black Paladin Lance [26]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: I'm so tired of tagging things, Multi, Y'all know the deal by now, let's do this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 11:01:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12982653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chloe_Hallow_Eve/pseuds/Chloe_Hallow_Eve
Summary: Lance wants to go back for Lotor. It's just a matter of convincing his team.Alternatively Titled: Leave No Man Behind





	The One Where Hunk Punches Haggar

The cold, numb feeling was always slow to fade. It lingered in Lance’s fingers and toes hours after he’d be let out. He’d usually be distracted by his team, who would hover about anyone who came out of a pod. But now the cold lingered behind his ribs, shaking and stuttering. He wasn’t sure he could fake being alright with it this time. He wasn’t sure it would fade this time. He wasn’t sure the team could distract him for long enough this time.

 

The differences were loud to Lance when he came to consciousness. So loud it almost hurt, especially when the swell of anger, sadness, and disorientation rose to his throat. 

 

When Lance was released from the healing pod, he dropped out into a pair of well-defined arms. He didn’t need to look up to know who it was, but he did anyways, a half-strained grin tugging at his lips despite his pain. Shiro smiled back. 

 

“Welcome home, Lance.”

 

All of the emotions overwhelming Lance quieted when he let out a laugh. 

 

“Glad to be back.”

 

“Lance!”

 

Lance turned his grin to Hunk, who bounded over and extracted him from Shiro’s arms to give his own hug. Lance nuzzled into his best friend. 

 

“Don’t scare me like that again. Ever. You got that?”

 

“Yeah, I gotcha.”

 

Hunk released him, swiping his thumb across his eyes. He gave Lance a watery smile, one Lance couldn’t help but return. 

 

Lance glanced over the room. Allura and Coran were standing by the entrance, relieved smiles on their faces. Pidge was rushing over to him, and behind them, an uncertain Keith lingered. Pidge punched him in the stomach, hard, before giving him a brief hug. They let go and shot a significant look to Keith before shuffled over to Hunk. 

 

Lance turned towards Keith. He was wearing Lance’s jacket instead of his usual cropped coat. The sleeves almost went passed his fingertips and the end settled mid-thigh. Lance’s brain lagged. That was stupidly adorable. 

 

Keith cleared his throat, fiddling with the zipper and taking shuffle-steps towards him. His shoulders were high, eyebrows low. One hand seemed to be going into a handshake position. Lance almost snorted. Instead, he opened his arms. 

 

Keith was wrapped up in an embrace within a blink. He held on tightly, face pressed into the crook of his neck. His hands shook where they clung to the Galran clothes he wore (Lance was briefly grateful the team forgot to change him into a pod suit, and skip explaining the mess that was his chest). Lance didn’t comment on any wetness he felt on his shoulder and just tightened his hold, his own eyes misting. 

 

He could have stayed dead. He could have never seen his team again. He could have never held Keith in his arms again. He wouldn’t have been able to go home after everything was done. The thought left his throat tight. 

 

Allura cleared her own throat, popping the bubble Keith and Lance has created. “We should be heading towards the kitchens. Lance most likely needs some sustenance after everything he’s been through.” She paused, then gave him a wobbly smile. “I’m very happy you’re back, Lance. It was quiet without you.” 

 

“Thanks, princess.” He let go of Keith, and the other stepped back, but kept a hand on his shoulder. “...Wait, what does that mean?!”

 

“You’re a loudmouth.” Pidge smirked without any guilt, having recovered from their earlier emotional  outburst. 

 

“Wh- no!”

 

“I’m just saying you’re a natural with filling the silence.” Allura covered her giggles with a hand, and Lance was almost completely sure she was fueling the fire on purpose. 

 

“Yeah, a natural motor mouth. And that’s saying something, since I usually can’t shut up.”

 

“Hunk, not you too!”

 

Keith snorted. “While I’m all for making fun of Lance, we should probably get him some food.”

 

Lance whined, flailing in Keith’s face. Keith snorted. The others smiled at him, teasing with lingering worry and fear (and some confusion in Shiro’s case). Lance could practically hear the single thought they were all sharing. 

 

_ “He’s the same as always.” _

 

Lance wondered how long it would take for them to start noticing how often he rubbed at where his heart should be. 

 

* * *

 

Lance was endlessly glad he’d taken to studying Altean. The letters on the screen were no longer just shapes, but words he could comprehend. Pidge had only been a few steps behind him when they’d last left off their lessons, and neither of them were fluent yet, but they were decent with the written language. Lance was proud of their progress, and nothing could ruin that. 

 

Not even his frustration. 

 

“Dammit!”

 

The mice squeaked softly on his shoulders. Lance took a few calming breaths, lifting a hand to give them each a comforting scratch. He was glad he wasn’t alone, but it was difficult to keep from throwing his arms up. He was dramatic by nature. He was also caring by nature (or so him mama said), so he was doing alright keeping from flinging the mice across the room. For now.

 

Lance rubbed his eyes, sighing. No matter how well he could navigate the Altean system, he still couldn’t find Lotor. It hadn’t been more than a day since he was released from the pod, but Lance had a bad feeling. So, as soon as the lights dimmed for the night cycle, Lance had padded to the control room. He’d hoped Lotor had sent him some sort of message, anything to say he was okay, but there was nothing. He’d switched to doing generic searches for any sightings of the prince. When that was fruitless as well (expected, since if a general search could find Lotor, the Empire definitely would), Lance realized he didn’t know the first thing about trying to track someone down. 

 

He stared at the screen. If there was anything Lance hated, it was being unsure of his friends wellbeing. He tapped the controls. He couldn’t do this on his own. But he knew the perfect person for the job. 

 

Lance’s frown deepened. There was no way he would be able to keep his relation to Lotor a secret anymore. Though, if it was this or let him potentially rot somewhere, he’d always choose this. 

 

He sighed again. One hand flitted to his chest. He wasn’t sure he’d get off easy, if he was let off at all. 

  
  


His prediction turned out to be close. 

 

When they sat for breakfast, Lance pushed his food around until he noticed the others giving him thinly veiled concerned looks. He put his spoon down and leaned his elbows on the table, meeting each teammate's eyes. They slowed their eating. 

 

“I think the ally I had inside the Empire is in danger.”

 

Allura placed her own utensil down, digesting his words. “Are you certain of this? Have they sent you a distress signal?”

 

Lance shook his head. “He said he’d let me know when he was safe. He was planning on bailing on the Empire after he helped me escape. But he’s been off the grid, and I know for a fact that he’s smart enough to send an intractable message. The way he got me out was really dangerous, so…”

 

Allura nodded, eyes sliding to Pidge. “Pidge, would you be able to find out if Lance’s ally is alright?”

 

“Probably. I’ve hacked into tougher things before. It’ll take time, though, and I’m gonna have to know who I’m looking for.”

 

Lance didn’t meet their curious gaze. He leaned a bit into Keith, who sat close enough that their shoulders brushed, and contemplated his answer. His foot nudged against Hunk’s, who was on his other side. Coming clean would probably be his best option. Hopefully they wouldn’t ask too many questions, and he could reveal everything slowly. 

 

Who was he kidding, of course there’d be questions. 

 

“Don’t freak out.”

 

“I’m gonna freak out.” Hunk promised. 

 

Lance sighed. He’d been doing a lot of that lately. “It’s Prince Lotor.”

 

Keith choked on his drink. Pidge slammed their hands on the table, expression incredulous. 

 

“What? What?!  _ What?!” _

 

Lance took a bite of his pancake-like meal. 

 

Hunk relaxed. “Oh, yeah, I knew.”

 

Pidge whipped around to him. “And you didn’t tell me?!”

 

Hunk shrugged. “I mean, I was waiting for Lance to bring it up. And then I forgot about it.”

 

“Curse you and your accidental betrayal!”

 

Shiro muttered a small ‘who’s Lotor’, but was shadowed by Keith slamming his drink on the table. 

 

Lance was prepared to be verbally eviscerated by the fuming red paladin when Allura cleared her throat. The room fell silent. She examined Lance for a few moments, eyes steely.  

 

“Why did you, our temporary black paladin and leader at the time, fail to inform your team of this?”

 

Lance had asked himself the same question for the first weeks of his and Lotor’s tentative friendship. He’d eventually found a couple of answers that all applied. 

 

“Part of it was ‘the more people who know, the more dangerous’. Another was that we’d established ourselves as enemies in the eyes of the Empire, and any further attitude changes on either side would be suspicious. And, I mean, it didn’t feel like something I could just decide on my own. Lotor and I would have to agree together. But when we met up we didn’t have time to talk about that.”

 

He didn’t say that he wanted to keep Lotor a separate thing from the team. He didn’t say that he’d found peace in wartime situations, and didn’t want to taint that image. He didn’t say that they’d found solace in each others presence, a kind of otherworldly support. He didn’t say that most of their conversations had nothing to do with anything important. He didn’t say that he wanted a small piece of ignorance. He didn’t say that he wanted to keep that situation where he didn’t need to lead, didn’t have any responsibility, didn’t have to put much effort into interacting. He didn’t say that Lotor had become what he defined as ‘a break’. He didn’t say that they trusted each other unconditionally after all they’d revealed about themselves to each other, and sworn to keep it all secret. He didn’t say that he had been selfish. 

 

Lance felt Allura could tell, anyways. She tapped her fingers along the table. 

 

“Why should we trust him?”

 

Lance smacked his lips together, debating his answer. Well, he’d been truthful up til now, might as well continue. 

 

“There are a few planets that are colonized by Galra that have no idea what the universe is going through. Lotor think’s Haggar wouldn’t hesitate to destroy one of them to use as an example. He’s pretty much fighting to protect them.”

 

Allura’s brows twitched. “Daibazaal still exists?”

 

“No, not the original planet. That’s pretty much dead. They settled on a couple others and made those home.”

 

She looked off to the side, caught up in her thoughts. Lance could only imagine what she must be thinking. He didn’t think she’d shun him for his actions, but she would want to make sure he never did it again. Which meant punishment. Lance hoped he wouldn’t have to clean the castle from top to bottom. That would just be plain torture. 

 

She looked back. “We’ll help him. But we will have a discussion about this later.”

 

Lance nodded. He wasn’t going to irritate her further. 

 

Breakfast continued, tenser than before, but Lance couldn’t feel bad about it. If they could save his ally, his friend, it would all be worth it in the end. 

 

Shiro raised a hand. “Can someone explain who Lotor is to me please?”

 

Lance snorted. 

 

* * *

 

Pidge was much more effective than Lance was at tracking Lotor. She made quick work of hacking into the mainframe, a network similar to Earth’s WiFi system (which he’d laughed about for a few minutes), and had been able to extract the information regarding Lance’s escape; prisoner released from pod early, escorted to an escape pod, and sent through a wormhole. Coordinates erased. Prince Lotor captured for the crime, attempted escape failed. 

 

Pidge and Hunk were trying to put together what information they could get their hands on to give them an idea of where he was being kept. Lance paced behind them, sometimes adjusting his blue paladin armour. Shiro was the only other person in paladin armour (seeing him back in black was strangely gratifying). He and Keith were much more patient about the results than he and Allura were, but it was to be expected. Eventually, Pidge tossed the nearest thing, one of Coran’s mechanic tools, at him. 

 

“Would you quit it?” They snapped. “I can’t do this if you’re being distracting as shit.”

 

“Language.”

 

Pidge leaned around Lance to give Shiro a look. His stern gaze didn’t waver. Pidge looked back at Lance, sass written across their face. 

 

“I can’t do this if you’re being distracting as a big pile of bull feces.”

 

Lance snorted. “That sounds very farmer-esque.”   
  


“Don’t stereotype farmers, Lance.”

 

“Okay but I worked on a farm for a couple summers, and they literally say ‘as useful as a bulls teets’, so it’s not really stereotyping.”

 

Pidge rolled their eyes, turning back to their work. Hunk turned to him with a bemused expression. 

 

“Do they really?”

 

“Can you just find the damn guy so we can get this over with?” Keith snapped, arms crossed tightly and pouting. 

 

Lance slid over, hip checking him lightly. “Alright, but only because you asked so nicely.”

 

Keith slumped at Lance’s sarcastic tone, sighing. “Yeah, sorry, just- you were in contact with him for so long, and none of us knew. It just…. Yeah.”

 

Well, if Lance didn’t feel bad before, he definitely did now. Keith was trying to hide it, but Lance had hurt him. Lance didn’t like hurting his team. 

 

“Sorry.” 

 

Keith gave him a gentle hip check in retaliation. “Just tell us when something this big is going on, okay?”

 

“Okay.”

 

Lance ignored how the chill in his chest spread. 

 

* * *

 

Lotor had never been subjugated to Haggar’s more… intense method of interrogation. He’d never seen it happen either, since she tended to keep such things between her, her prisoner, and a few select druids. This wasn’t to say Lotor wasn’t curious. In fact, he’d been quite adamant as a child about watch his mother in action. 

 

(He didn’t consider her to be his mother anymore. He hadn’t since he realized neither of his parents gave a damn about him.) 

 

She’d refused, saying he’d have to follow the path of the druid if he wanted to watch so badly. Lotor didn’t find particular joy in that path of life, so he therefore never got to see what happened. It was always tantalizing, though. A thought lingering in his mind after all these years, always whispering ‘what if she lets you this time?’ He’d succeeded in brushing it away every time. 

 

Now, he wished he hadn’t wanted to know so badly. Maybe then Karma wouldn’t have snatched him up in her claws and plopped him right in the interrogantes chair. 

 

He kept his glazed gaze on Haggar’s chin, defiant yet subdued. He could feel her trying to peek into his mind, digging for answers he wouldn’t provide her. Lotor felt a twist of sadistic glee every time Haggar’s prods were met with a wall of nonsense. He credited Lance for that. That boy could keep up a consistent stream of dialogue about nothing in particular that was unparalleled. He could mimic it fairly decently though. 

 

A muscle in Haggar’s jaw jumped. Lotor smirked. She pointed a crooked finger at him and an arch of corrupted purple lightning hit him square in the chest. He convulsed, but refused to cry out. He still had his pride as a prince, no matter how outcast or banished he be. 

 

Lotor allowed himself a moment to shut his eyes and indulge in his concerned whims. He hoped Lance was safe. He hoped his team had found him, and were taking care of him. He refused to think all of this had been for naught. 

 

And besides, Haggar wouldn’t be putting so much effort into this interrogation if they hadn’t succeeded. It would just be a punishment. 

 

Lotor almost laughed at himself. He hadn’t allowed himself to have hope for a long time. But that just meant Lance was doing his job as a member of Voltron properly, didn’t it? To give hope to the beaten, broken, and damned. 

 

Lotor liked to think he was all three. 

 

* * *

 

“I’ve got him! There’s good news and bad news.”

 

Lance was immediately next to Pidge, eyes darting across the screens. “Hit me with it, Pidgeotto.”

 

“The bad news is that he was captured. The good news is that he’s on the ship you left. I had a hunch and managed to track the pod you escaped in back to its original. We should probably destroy that pod, by the way. The signal works both ways. I’m surprised they haven’t thought to use it.”

 

Lance nodded slowly, tapping his fingers on the back of their chair. “How far away from the ship are we?”

 

“A wormhole should do it.”

 

“Okay. Princess, do I have your permission to go ahead with this?”

 

Allura’s lips pursed. “I don’t like going into this blind.”

 

Lance rubbed his forehead. “A concrete plan would take too long to make. Lotor could be gone by the time we get to him.”

 

“And we could very well be stepping into a trap.”

 

Lance went to argue further, but stopped when a metal hand dropped onto his shoulder. He held his tongue, glancing at Shiro. 

 

“Princess, if Lance is right about Lotor and the planets, we might be able to recruit the Galrans there. They can offer us intel on their technology, combat strategies, supplies, and cut back support for the Empire drastically. But that probably won’t happen without their Prince. They’ve probably been fed propaganda, and won’t accept our word on anything.”

 

Allura’s frown deepened, but she paused to consider. Slowly, her intense expression eased. She sighed. 

 

“Alright. But only if we’re careful about it. Stealth mission, carried out similarly to our last. Does everyone understand?”

 

There was a chorus of affirmatives. Shiro turned to everyone with a smile. 

 

“Right. Then everyone, get suited up. We leave in a varga.”

 

Keith, Hunk, Allura and Pidge nodded and leaped into action. Lance stayed behind. He was already suited up. He unconsciously moved towards the black chair, the place he’d sat for the last couple of months, but bumped into Shiro on his way there. They both paused. They looked at each other. 

 

“Sorry.” Lance blurted. “I just- I got used to going there, and- yeah. Sorry. I’ll just…” 

 

He tried to slide over to the blue seat, but a hand stopped him once more. 

 

“Take it.”

 

Lance turned, eyebrows high. “Huh?”

 

Shiro gave him a gentle smile. “Take it. You can lead this mission. Think of it asa sort of graduation, except more violent and you’ll be changing back to Blue after.” He frowned when Lance gave him an amused look. “Yeah, not my best metaphor.”

 

Lance shook his head, disregarding Shiro’s antics. “What about you? I can’t just take your position while you’re here.”

 

Shiro’s hand squeezed. “Yes, you can. I’m saying you should. I’ll catch a ride with Keith. So then, if you get overwhelmed or something goes wrong, we can hop back to our original places.”

 

Lance stared up at his childhood hero, his biggest inspiration to becoming a pilot. There was something in his expression that Lance didn’t like. But he couldn’t turn down the offer when it was presented to him so plainly. Besides, what was one more mission as the head of Voltron?

 

He nodded, forcing a confident smirk. “Thanks, Shiro. I won’t let you down.”

 

Shiro nodded back, letting his hand slide off of Lance’s shoulder. “I know you won’t.”

 

Lance stepped over to the black seat, planted himself in it, and waited. The anticipation was building in his chest, a thrum that was magnified by Black’s excitement for the mission. She purred loudly, and Lance got the impression of a cat crouched, tail swishing, prepared to pounce. Dangerous, tense, and on the hunt. He closed his eyes and allowed Black to trickle through his senses. Blue retreated to the corner of his mind, instead flowing into Allura’s, with all the ease of a changing stream. When the log fell in the river, the river didn’t stop for it. It made its own way around.

 

Black didn’t appreciate being compared to a log. Blue didn’t really care. Lance snorted. 

 

The other team members trickled back, throwing curious glances between Shiro and Lance, but taking their seats nonetheless. After they were all there, Lance stood and turned to them. 

 

“Alright, Shiro and I talked, and we’ve decided this will be the last mission I lead. Which means, you know what time it is.”

 

Pidge leaned forward with a lopsided smirk. “Time to plan and kick ass.”

 

Lance grinned. “Bingo. Let’s pull up the ship schematics and see what we’re working with.”

 

* * *

 

Lance gritted his teeth. This had to be a record for how fast something fell to shit. 

 

The mission had been going spectacularly, possibly because the whole team was together again and morale was boosted. Pidge had managed to up her field of invisibility, so it could reach all the lions if they were touching in close quarters. Everyone had clumped their lions on the bottom of the ship, one by one, careful to avoid being picked up on any scans. Once their lions were safe, they made their way to the closest hatch. Pidge hacked into it, opening it while simultaneously making it seem like it was still closed to the sensors and security cameras, and they slipped in unnoticed. 

 

They’d managed to stealth kill most of the sentries and extract the information about where Lotor was being held before they ran into trouble. 

 

They’d been on their way to the interrogation room in the upper part of the ship when they’d had to cross through what seemed to be the center of the ship. It was a large room that all hallways seemed to connect to, hexagonal, and had a high ceiling that opened up to the rest of the floors above. The upper floors didn’t have rails or anything, just dropped into the center. Two of the lions could probably sit in the room comfortably, three if they were squished and the third one was Green. It was unsettling. Lance didn’t trust it, and made his opinion known. Hunk and Shiro agreed. But with the path they needed to take right across from them, and no roundabout ways to get there, they had little choice but to cross the large space. 

 

Lance thought this was too easy. 

 

They hadn’t gotten far across before there was a whirl of dark purple. Haggar stood in front of them, teeth bared. The team had frozen, just for a moment, before jumping into action. 

 

Haggar was able to knock Keith and Pidge aside like they weighed nothing. Lance’s bullets barely grazed her. Shiro locked up occasionally, but was managing to hold his own. The only one who seemed to be faring well against Haggar was Allura. 

 

Allura twirled her staff, sweating as she pushed bits of quintessence into her attacks. Slowly, but surely, she was pushing Haggar back. She was blocking the strikes Haggar sent her way with bright pink flashes. Her scowl was two parts distaste and one part concentration. Shiro caught any stray shots aimed at the others, using his metal arm to shield them as much as he could. 

 

Lance frowned. He was more in the way than being useful. “Keith, Pidge! Follow me, we’re going to continue up ahead. Shiro, Allura, Hunk, you three continue holding her off.”

 

There was a chorus of affirmatives. He began moving, darting up from his crouch and across the room. Keith and Pidge fell in line beside him. 

 

“Where do you think you’re going?”

 

Lance skidded to a halt when Haggar appeared in front of them. He quickly aimed and fired, but the witch only appeared a little away from her last spot, effectively dodging. Her hand reached for Pidge, the one closest, a blur as it went to wrap around the youngest paladin’s neck. 

 

Lance couldn’t move quick enough. He couldn’t aim quick enough. He felt a primal fear choke him, terrified that this was the moment he’d lose one of his best friends. He could feel the moment his body decided to start shaking. 

 

Haggar was so close. Lance almost felt like he’d never left. What if this was all an illusion? What if the witch had provided him a fake reality? He was cold. So cold. The steady strum of his heart forcefully kept his panic low. It couldn’t stop the flash of images in front of his eyes, though. 

 

_ ‘Useless’ _

 

There was a blur of yellow, and suddenly Hunk were there. Rage took up his features. His fist was already on a collision course for Haggar’s face. 

 

This moment in history would soon be deemed ‘The Best Moment In The War’ by Lance. Because there was nothing more thrilling or fulfilling as seeing Hunk’s fist connect with Haggar’s face and how she was sent flying across the room. Lance was grinning before she smashed into the ground.

 

“Go, we’ve got her!”

 

“Thanks, buddy. Pidge, you’re okay?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Right. Let’s get going!”

 

He felt a lot more confident leaving half his team behind than he had ten seconds ago. They darted into the hallway, ignoring the sounds of battle behind them as they rushed towards the room Lotor was supposed to be held in. 

 

“We’re almost there! Just a little farther, then I can hack into the door and we can get Lotor out.”

 

“Guys, we have company!”

 

Lance turned, yelping and ducking quickly to avoid a blast. He and Pidge lept to the nearest shelter, a support in the wall that jutted out. Keith drew his blade and activated his shield. 

 

“You guys go ahead. The sooner you get Lotor out of here, the sooner we can all leave.”

 

Lance went to protest, then sighed. Keith wouldn’t listen to him. “Fine. Pidge, can you hack the doors from here?”

 

“It’ll take a while, but yeah.”

 

“Back up Keith in between codes or whatever. I’ll get Lotor out of here then come back, and we can fight our way to the lions. Shiro, how’re you guys holding up?”

 

There was a grunt. “Haggar won’t sit still long enough for us to hit her. But that also means she has limited time to hit us. We can hold our own until you guys come back.”

 

“Right. I’ll be as quick as I can.”

 

Lance ran, taking advantage of his long legs and wide strides. With Pidge in his ear, telling him which ways to go, he found the interrogation room quickly. He had to wait while they hacked the security system. 

 

“Come on, Pidge!”

 

“Hold on! They know we’re here, their security system is tighter!”

 

“We don’t have the time!” Lance aimed at the control panel and shot. The door didn’t open. 

 

Pidge let out a frustrated grunt. “What did you do to the control panel? I can’t hack it like this. It’s manually locked now.”

 

“That means I can pry it open.”

 

Lance wedged the blade on his gun between the doors, slowly prying them open. He slipped through when they were wide enough. They didn’t shut behind him. Lance wondered if that was a blessing or a curse. 

 

The room was dim. It looked almost exactly like the room he had been held in, except was furnished with what looked like a dentist chair with straps instead of a metal table. And sitting in it was a familiar purple shape with stark white hair. 

 

Lance rushed forwards. Lotor was unconscious. He muttered a couple curses before bending to undo his hands. “Lotor? It’s me, Lance. I need you to wake up. Come on, dude, don’t leave me hanging. Wake up.”

 

Slowly, Lotor regained consciousness. He groaned. His body ached. His head was splitting open. He slowly lifted his head. “Ah, Lance. So nice to see you.”

 

Lance released a breath. “Yeah, you too, man. Come on. Can you stand?”

 

“Of course.” After his restraints were released, he planted his feet down and pushed out of the chair. He wobbled, but was able to stay upright. 

 

“Good. Cause we need to run.” Lance motioned for the halfbreed to follow him, looking out the door briefly before slipping into the hallway. Once he was sure it was safe, he helped Lotor through. “Where’s the escape pods?”

 

“I… I think it’s this way.” 

 

* * *

 

From there, it was easy to find and prepare an escape pod. They encountered a couple soldiers, but nothing Lance couldn’t deal with. Most forces were being drawn by the other five paladins in the ship. They had little to spare for two used-to-be-prisoners. 

 

Lance placed a hand on Lotor’s shoulder before he left, looking him in the eyes. 

 

“You need to take back your planets. Your people. They’ll listen to you if you tell them what’s really happening out here.”

 

Doubt flashed through Lotor’s eyes. “I’m not sure if I’ll be able to convince them to switch sides.”

 

“Then don’t. Just convince them to not support your father’s.”

 

Lotor was silent, face pinched. He nodded. “I’ll do my best.” He glanced down at Lance’s chest. “How are you, by the way?”

 

Lance’s mouth twisted. “I’m…. surviving. I’ll be okay soon. I just… need some time.”

 

“Understandable.” He stepped into the pod. “Well, I’m off. Thank you for everything, Lance.”

 

Lance smiled, giving him a two fingered salute. “See ya soon, Lotor.”

 

Lotor gave his own wave. He closed the pod then launched himself into space. Lance made sure he was actually gone before making his way back to his team. 

 

“Mission success. I’m heading back towards Pidge and Keith. Be ready to leave right away. Coran, is the ship ready to make a jump?”

 

“In a split tick!”

 

Allura winced, her quintessent shield wobbling. Her voice came out strained. “Okay. We’re starting to struggle with Haggar. Please hurry.”

 

Shiro ducked out from behind the glistening pink force, hand darting out to strike at Haggar. She twisted out of the way, bringing her own charged hand out to electrocute him. Hunk fired at her from across the room, forcing her to teleport to a different spot. They had been repeating the same song and dance for the past minute. Haggar was visibly getting fed up with it. She spun, sending a corrupt bolt at Hunk. 

 

He was unable to move in time. His limbs locked as the energy disappeared into his body, a strangled cry slipping from his lips before he fell. 

 

“Hunk!”   
  


Keith raced into the clearing, Pidge hot on his heels, just in time to see the yellow paladin crumple. Keith rushed Haggar without hesitation. He slashed up, but it only went through thin air. She was gone. 

 

Allura dropped her shield, panting. Her eyes darted across the space. The witch was gone. She turned to Shiro, eyebrows high. He mirrored her expression. They both turned to Hunk then, rushing to him and slinging an arm around each of their shoulders. 

 

“Where’s Lance?” 

 

“We don’t know. The Galra we were fighting retreated, so we decided to find you guys.”

 

“But why? Do you think they’re planning something?”

 

“It’s possible. We need to find Lance and leave. Right now.”

 

There was a mechanical whir. The team flinched, looking around frantically for the source of the noise. Six thin pillars rose from each corner of the room, crackling. They stopped rising when they reached the second story. The buzzing increased, suddenly spiking in volume as the rods flashed. Electricity connected them to each other, connected them to ones on the ceiling they hadn’t noticed dropping, effectively boxing the paladins in. There was a moment of horrified silence. 

 

Pidge’s hand flew over her small keyboard, desperately scanning the machines. “I can’t- I can’t hack them. I don’t know-”

 

Keith’s hand flew to his helmet. “Lance! Where are you?”

 

Silence. 

 

“Lance!”

 

“They’re blocking transmissions. And scrambling my device.” Pidge gave a frustrated whine. “I can’t do anything!”

 

“Pidge, calm down. We can figure something out.”

 

“Okay. Okay, Shiro’s right. I’ll- I’ll try to combat against the scramble. See if I can disable it.”

 

Allura’s brows furrowed. “Why didn’t Haggar do this when we were all in the room? Why just now?”

 

Keith looked the way they’d come. His fist clenched around his bayard. “She wanted to get Lance alone.”

 

There was a metallic shriek above them. Heads whipped up. What they had previously thought to be a ceiling was opening, and in the hidden compartment was a large device. Pidge took a sharp breath. 

 

“Oh no. That’s a gravity mani-”

 

They weren’t able to finish. The air around them suddenly became heavy, literally. There was an invisible weight crashing down on them, forcing those awake to their knee’s. Hunk dropped from between Allura and Shiro. The weight continued to press, heavier and heavier. It became difficult to breathe. They could hardly let out a noise. Only whispered whimpers. 

 

Lance was having a hard time finding his way back to the others. When he’d tried to use the comms, all he’d received in return was silence. He’d next tried Coran. That, thankfully, had worked. Lance was trying to not think the worst about what happened to his friends, but it was difficult when the radio silence continued to stretch. 

 

“Coran, what do the scanners say?”

 

“It appears the paladins are trapped in the hexagonal room you passed through earlier. I can’t discern much more, whatever is there is making it difficult to get a reading.”

 

“Okay. I’ll get down to Black and force my way into the ship. Hopefully it’ll knock whatever has them around enough for them to get away.”

 

“Good luck, Lance.”

 

Lance took a breath, then smirked. “Thanks, I don’t need luck.”

 

“Good, because you won’t get any.”

 

The new voice had Lance tensing up. He spun, gun up, coming face to face with Haggar. They were alone in the hallway. Lance’s body felt numb. 

 

“My machines and I haven’t been able to kill a paladin yet, but maybe that will change.” Her hands caught his helmet and she forced him to look into her eyes. 

 

He couldn’t move. There were fingers digging into his skull. His lungs weren’t pulling in enough air. They sunk past the bone into his brain. He couldn’t pull the trigger. His finger was there but he couldn’t pull it back. Something was rooting around his head pulling him apart it felt  _ acidic these worms twisting between the cogs and clogging the machine- _

 

Black roared, deafening in his ears and impossibly close. Was she there? Or was that noise in his head? She roared again, and Haggar was forced out of his mind. She stumbled back with a shriek as Lance’s finger closed around the trigger. 

 

She disappeared. Lance was left shaking and panting. Black purred, nudging him into action. He turned and followed her directions, all the way back into her cockpit. 

 

It was quiet. 

 

He drew Black back, then rammed her head through the side of the ship. He had to do it several times before he saw results. 

 

The gravity manipulator rocked, power flickering out. Gravity returned to its original state. It felt lighter, even though the paladins knew it would be the same as it was before. The rods fizzled into silence, dead. The paladins stood one by one, pink and black carrying yellow once more, and stumbled back to their lions. Black and Red destroyed the ship. Blue and Green carried Yellow back to the castle. The mission was a success. 

 

The mission was a success. 

 

The mission was a success.

 

* * *

 

Lotor contacted the castleship the next morning. 

 

“Thank you, again, for the rescue. I look forward to our partnership.”

 

Shiro nodded. The call cut off. His shoulders relaxed. “Is there anything else we need to discuss before we end this meeting?”

 

The princess shook her head. “I think we covered the bulk of it before Lotor called. The rest can wait.”

 

“Alright. Everyone, relax. Go have fun. We did good.”

 

They all began to gratefully slip out of the room. 

 

“Ah, Lance, can I talk to you for a moment?”

 

Lance paused in the doorway, sighed, and backtracked. He crossed his arms over her armoured chest as he approached Shiro. “Is this about the mission? I know I messed up, and-”

 

“Lance, calm down. I wanted to tell you that you did a good job.”

 

Lance dragged his gaze from the floor. His narrowed gaze examined Shiro’s open face. “...Really?”

 

“Yes.” He smiled. “The mission didn’t go according to plan, but you did your best. The plan you came up with wasn’t full proof, and was pretty brash, but you punctured the ship in strategic places. You didn’t know what was going to happen, you can’t blame yourself for how things played out. What’s important is that the mission was completed, and we’re all safe.”

 

Lance shifted, nodding along. He didn’t completely agree with Shiro, but… hearing him say that took some of the weight off of his shoulders. He smiled. “Thanks, Shiro.”

 

Shiro patted his back. “I just wanted you to know you did Voltron proud.”

 

Lance’s smile widened. 

 

“Of course, there’s room for improvement.”

 

Lance gasped, slapping a hand on his chest. “What! No way, I was perfect!”

 

Shiro laughed, patting his back once more before starting to walk away. “Go relax. You’ve earned it.”

 

He slipped out the door. Lance smiled, looking to the stars. Everyone was here. Everyone was safe. Everyone was okay. He was the lightest he’d been in a long while. 

 

He tried not to think about his own mechanic parts. 

 

“Where’s Mullet? I swear if he’s training right now I’m going to drag him and the twister mat out of hiding.”

 

That’s what he ended up doing. The others joined them, drawn by the strangled argument they were attempting to have while spinning the wheel and twisting around each other. 

**Author's Note:**

> *Strangled screeching*  
> It's been almost two months. University takes a lot of concentration. Especially when you're taking Creative Writing as your major. 
> 
> I present this monster of an update as an apology. Please take care of it. 
> 
> I don't have school until January, so I should be able to get another chapter out! I'm a little stuck on what I want to type out next, though. If you have any suggestions of what you want to see, feel free to tell me!
> 
> That's it for today. Happy Holidays, and for those who don't celebrate them, Happy December! I love you guys so much, we're seriously at 299 bookmarks for the series with is INCREDIBLE. I'll see you next time~!!!


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